Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
Evidence of Effectiveness: South Dakota's requirements for licensure advancement and renewal are not based on evidence of teacher effectiveness.
Advancing to a Professional License: South Dakota requires teachers to have five or more years of experience to advance from the standard to the professional teaching certificate. To advance to the advanced teaching certificate, teachers must also have an advanced degree in an education-related field or be National Board certified.
Renewing a Professional License: South Dakota teachers must renew their licenses every five years. To renew the professional teaching certificate, teachers must either participate as a mentor in a state-approved mentor program for at least two of the past five years; complete National Board certification; or complete six education-related credits with a minimum of three transcripted credits or specialized learning experience hours. To renew the advanced teaching certificate, teachers must either participate as a mentor in a state-approved mentor program for at least two of the past five years; complete National Board certification or recertification within the past five years; or complete six education-related transcripted credits, specialized learning experience hours, or continued education contact hours.
Require evidence of effectiveness as a part of teacher licensing policy.
South Dakota should require evidence of teacher effectiveness to be a factor in determining whether teachers may renew or advance to a higher-level license.
Discontinue license requirements with no direct connection to classroom effectiveness.
Although targeted requirements may potentially expand teacher knowledge and improve teacher practice, South Dakota's general, nonspecific credit hour coursework requirements for license renewal merely call for teachers to complete a certain amount of seat time. These requirements do not correlate with teacher effectiveness.
End requirement tying teacher advancement to master's degrees.
South Dakota should remove its mandate that teachers obtain a master's degree for license advancement. Research is clear that master's degrees generally do not have any significant correlation with classroom performance. Rather, advancement should be based on evidence of teacher effectiveness.
South Dakota declined to respond to NCTQ's analyses.
9A: Licensure Advancement
The reason for probationary licensure should be to determine teacher effectiveness. Most states grant new teachers a probationary license that must later be converted to an advanced or professional license. A probationary period is sound policy as it provides an opportunity to determine whether individuals merit professional licensure. However, very few states require any determination of teacher performance or effectiveness in deciding whether a teacher will advance from the probationary license. Instead, states generally require probationary teachers to fulfill a set of requirements to receive advanced certification. Therefore, ending the probationary period is based on whether a checklist has been completed rather than on teacher performance and effectiveness.
Most state requirements for achieving professional certification have not been shown to affect teacher effectiveness.[1] Unfortunately, not only do most states fail to connect advanced certification to actual evidence of teacher effectiveness, but also the requirements teachers must most often meet are not even related to teacher effectiveness. The most common requirement for professional licensure is completion of additional coursework, often resulting in a master's degree. Requiring teachers to obtain additional training in their teaching area would be meaningful; however, the requirements are usually vague, allowing the teacher to fulfill coursework requirements from long menus that include areas having no connection or use to the teacher in the classroom.[2] The research evidence on requiring a master's degree is quite conclusive: with rare exceptions, these degrees have not been shown to make teachers more effective.[3] This is likely due in no small part to the fact that teachers may not attain master's degrees in their subject areas.
In addition to their dubious value, these requirements may also serve as a disincentive to teacher retention. Talented probationary teachers may be unwilling to invest time and resources in more education coursework. Further, they may well pursue advanced degrees that facilitate leaving teaching.